Side Quests for Wanderers

There are times in any good journey when the road ahead can wait a little while. Perhaps you have wandered far enough for one day, or perhaps you simply found yourself in the mood to follow a curious trail that appeared beside the road. That is what these side quests are for: excursions into the world of The Paladin & The Pixie, where you can pause for a while, follow a trail of clues, and see whether you can piece together what happened before the road calls you onward again.

Each side quest takes place somewhere within the world we have been building, with familiar faces wandering into situations of their own. Someone has misplaced something. An errand has gone slightly awry. A handful of clues have appeared, and somewhere among them is the answer. The characters, places, and circumstances belong to our growing story, but the puzzle itself is yours to solve. Think of each one as being handed a map with a path marked upon it and being told, quite cheerfully, that we have no intention of telling you where it leads.

New side quests first make their appearance in the Hearthbook, where each puzzle gets its own story and a place within the ongoing journey. This page is their permanent home, keeping the puzzles together in one place so that they can still be found long after their individual Hearthbook posts have wandered farther down the road.

And no, you will not find the answers tucked beneath the puzzles. That would rather spoil the wandering, wouldn't it? The solutions live on a separate answer page here on the website, kept apart from the puzzles like the answer key in the back of a well-loved puzzle book. Once you have solved a side quest—or decided that your brain has had quite enough of it, thank you very much—you can follow the link to the answer key and see whether your reasoning led you down the right path.

There is one other bit of the tale worth telling before you begin. These puzzles are created with the help of AI. We use it to help work through the logic and keep all those clues, possibilities, and troublesome little details from wandering off in opposite directions. The world, the characters, the situations, and the ideas behind the puzzles come from us, and every puzzle is read, checked, and adjusted before it is shared. The AI is simply another tool on the worktable. Much like any other tool, it still requires someone to decide what belongs in the finished piece.

That is really all these side quests are meant to be: a chance to step off the main road for a while and let your brain have a bit of fun. There is no clock to beat and no prize for arriving first. Take your time, follow the clues, and see where the trail leads.

Choose a side quest below, settle in, and begin.

The road can wait.

The Elder's Errands

In the snowbound village of Frostmere, a day's ride from the village of The Paladin and The Pixie, Elder Maren has fallen ill before the midwinter feast. The Herbalist and The Caravan Trader each set out to fetch an item, while The Village Merchant checked his own storeroom. Each came up with a different item, and no two had the same thing.

Items

  • Silver Lantern

  • Frostbloom Herb

  • Old Map

Clues

  1. The Herbalist did not bring back the Silver Lantern.

  2. The Caravan Trader did not bring back the Frostbloom Herb.

  3. The Village Merchant found the Silver Lantern sitting in his storeroom.

Final Question

Who brought back the Old Map?

The Keeper's Missing Things

In the village of Hollowmere, a day's walk from the village of The Paladin and The Pixie, three townsfolk searched the square before market day to track down items that had gone missing from the stalls. The Traveling Bard, The Hedge Witch, and The Keeper of the Hearth each found exactly one, and no two found the same thing.

Items

  • Brass Key

  • Dried Sage Bundle

  • Sealed Letter

Clues

  1. The Hedge Witch did not find the Dried Sage Bundle.

  2. The Traveling Bard found either the Brass Key or the Sealed Letter.

  3. The Sealed Letter was found by either The Hedge Witch or The Keeper of the Hearth.

Final Question

Who found the Sealed Letter?

 

Side Quests for Wanderers: The Pixie's Missing Sketchbook

The Pixie set her traveling sketchbook down somewhere in the village of The Paladin and The Pixie and, true to form, cannot for the life of her remember where. Four townsfolk agreed to help, each searching exactly one place, and each came back having searched somewhere different from the rest.

Searchers

  • The Herbalist
  • The Caravan Trader
  • The Keeper of the Hearth
  • The Guild Artisan

Locations

  • The Pixie's Workshop
  • The Hedge Witch's Hut
  • The Shopkeeper's Market Stall
  • The Village Well

Clues

  1. The Guild Artisan searched The Pixie's Workshop.
  2. Neither The Herbalist nor The Caravan Trader searched The Village Well.
  3. The Caravan Trader did not search The Hedge Witch's Hut.
  4. The Herbalist did not search The Shopkeeper's Market Stall.

Final Question

Who found the sketchbook, and where?

Answer to The Pixie's Missing Sketchbook

Clue 1 places the Guild Artisan at The Pixie's Workshop, which leaves the Herbalist, the Caravan Trader, and the Keeper of the Hearth to sort out the Hut, the Stall, and the Well. Clue 2 rules out both the Herbalist and the Caravan Trader for the Well, which leaves only the Keeper of the Hearth to have searched there. That leaves the Hut and the Stall for the Herbalist and the Caravan Trader. Clue 3 rules out the Hut for the Caravan Trader, so the Caravan Trader must have searched the Stall, which leaves the Hut for the Herbalist. Clue 4 confirms this, since the Herbalist not searching the Stall matches the Caravan Trader already having it.

The Keeper of the Hearth found the sketchbook at The Village Well.